Oct 13, 2026 · 19 min · 9 segments
Step into the hidden world of Jane Austen's private family stories and archives! What secrets aren't found on the published page? In this exciting episode, author and host Gayvin Powers interviews…
Gaben PowersHost
And let's go ahead and get started because you've been doing tours lately, haven't you?
So this year, for the first time-- Well, it's funny sometimes in life when, of course, the things that are just normal to you, you take for granted, don't you? I don't know if this sounds silly, but it never occurred to me that people would be interested in walking around Chawton with me, which, which just probably sounds really silly because I, I'd never really thought about it.
I've hosted, um, dinners at Chawton House and things like that, and people want to come and have dinner with the family in Chawton.
But when you grow up with things, when you grow up with stories, when you grow up with these family sort of legends, again, you just take them for granted in a way, don't you? Until you're a little bit older and you can sort of appreciate it all.
But it's actually only been, I think, through sort of a decade of me now constantly in the Austen world, researching all the time, reading all of the latest work that's happening, the academic world's doing new things that are being uncovered and everything else, that I've also realized what we hold, the, the knowledge that we have-
... of our traditions that Jane was probably doing in Chawton, or our understanding of the estate, of the land, of the rhythms of it all.
There are things that I experienced as a child, there are things we still do today, that just shed a little glimpse about what Jane's experience in Chawton might have been.
You know, a good example of that would be a story that has very much been told before, but is Sir Richard, who reclines in marble in the church.
So when Oliver Cromwell's men came through England to overthrow the king, they came through Chawton, and they knocked on the door of Chawton House, and they were going on to the big houses, basically demanding that these squires pledge allegiance to Oliver Cromwell and not the king.
And Basing House, which would've been another house close by, was destroyed.
But it just so happens that this Sir Richard, when they came and knocked at Chawton House, he had just inherited and he was only two years old.
But then, of course, Oliver Cromwell was successful, the Puritans got into power, and although I'm simplifying this enormously, Christmas was banned.
When S-Sir Richard, he wasn't a sir at this point, but when he was five years old, Christmas was banned, and it didn't officially come back until he was 21.
And so because he's reclining, as I said, in the church, and it just so happens, I think at one point his hand was holding something.
And so every year, we put a sprig of holly with berries on it in his hand for December so that Sir Richard doesn't miss Christmas anymore.
And let's go ahead and get started because you've been doing tours lately, haven't you?
So this year, for the first time-- Well, it's funny sometimes in life when, of course, the things that are just normal to you, you take for granted, don't you? I don't know if this sounds silly, but it never occurred to me that people would be interested in walking around Chawton with me, which, which just probably sounds really silly because I, I'd never really thought about it.
I've hosted, um, dinners at Chawton House and things like that, and people want to come and have dinner with the family in Chawton.
But when you grow up with things, when you grow up with stories, when you grow up with these family sort of legends, again, you just take them for granted in a way, don't you? Until you're a little bit older and you can sort of appreciate it all.
But it's actually only been, I think, through sort of a decade of me now constantly in the Austen world, researching all the time, reading all of the latest work that's happening, the academic world's doing new things that are being uncovered and everything else, that I've also realized what we hold, the, the knowledge that we have-
... of our traditions that Jane was probably doing in Chawton, or our understanding of the estate, of the land, of the rhythms of it all.
There are things that I experienced as a child, there are things we still do today, that just shed a little glimpse about what Jane's experience in Chawton might have been.
You know, a good example of that would be a story that has very much been told before, but is Sir Richard, who reclines in marble in the church.
So when Oliver Cromwell's men came through England to overthrow the king, they came through Chawton, and they knocked on the door of Chawton House, and they were going on to the big houses, basically demanding that these squires pledge allegiance to Oliver Cromwell and not the king.
And Basing House, which would've been another house close by, was destroyed.
But it just so happens that this Sir Richard, when they came and knocked at Chawton House, he had just inherited and he was only two years old.
But then, of course, Oliver Cromwell was successful, the Puritans got into power, and although I'm simplifying this enormously, Christmas was banned.
When S-Sir Richard, he wasn't a sir at this point, but when he was five years old, Christmas was banned, and it didn't officially come back until he was 21.
And so because he's reclining, as I said, in the church, and it just so happens, I think at one point his hand was holding something.
And so every year, we put a sprig of holly with berries on it in his hand for December so that Sir Richard doesn't miss Christmas anymore.
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